The purpose of sentencing criminals is more complicated than it appears.

It is intended to satisfy society’s need for some appearance of justice, that bad deeds have bad consequences. Part of it is intended to rehabilitate the offender. And yet another function is punitive.

All of these combined are intended to protect society from those who have trespassed against us and have run afoul of the laws that are the foundation of a just society — a lofty ideal.

And then there is the case of former state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.

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Orie Melvin, if you recall, is a member of the Allegheny County political/crime family that currently has three members under conviction for using political office for personal gain. One of her sisters, Jane, a former state senator, is serving 2½ to 10 years in state prison.

Allegheny County Court Judge Lester G. Nauhaus came up with a creative sentence for Orie Melvin. In addition to being under house arrest in her lavish home, he ordered her to write letters of apology to her staff and nearly 500 judges across the Commonwealth.

And that’s causing a problem. Orie Melvin is appealing her conviction, and her lawyer claims that writing such letters may be viewed as an admission of guilt, a violation of his client’s Fifth Amendment rights.

He has a point. Even if the letters were of the insincere I’m-sorry-you-were-offended-by-actions variety, they could be considered evidence of a guilty conscience.

Having her send the letters — accompanied by a photograph of her in handcuffs — was creative, intended to teach her something about humility, something seemingly lacking in her character.

Nauhaus, of course, doesn’t share her lawyer’s view. He chastised Orie Melvin and yelled at her lawyer for ignoring provisions of his sentence.

The sentence was creative, to be sure, creative enough for Orie Melvin to find a way to weasel out of some of its requirements.

In the end, it isn’t enough.

She was a state Supreme Court justice who, the evidence showed, abused her office for political purposes. It is ironic that a judge who was the last word on the law in the state of Pennsylvania violated the law in the performance of her duties. Offensive too.

And it was offensive that she got off so easy.

House arrest?

Please.

Her jail for three years — she is allowed to leave for church and to work at a soup kitchen — is a 3,655-square-foot, five-bedroom, 4½-bath, half-million-dollar McMansion.

Creative sentencing can serve a purpose. But in this case, she needs to go to jail. She was convicted of committing an egregious violation of the public trust while serving on the state’s highest court.

That’s pretty bad.

If the judge really wants to get creative, he could order her to bunk with her sister.